Let's Come Out of the Closet About Lice, Shall We?

In the United States, it is estimated that between 6-12 million people become infested with head lice per year.  In Canada, the equivalent would be about 1.5 million people.  That's a lot of lice.  These figures are likely under-reported because who wants to admit they have lice?  Lice are gross little bugs that feast on your blood in your sleep and while your child is merrily playing games.  And yet.

If they are so common, perhaps we should know more about them and how to treat them.  Recently my two (long-haired daughters) contracted lice.  I was shocked!  I mean, there are notes sent home fairly regularly saying that cases of lice exist at the schools but I had been checking!  I had used tea tree oil shampoo!  I had put their hair up in ponytails!!  How had it happened?  Well, I can think of one thing, at least.  I didn't know what to look for.

Lice are notoriously hard to find.  They are the same color as your child's hair, for instance.  So if your child has blond hair, the lice are lighter than those lice on children with dark hair.  And the eggs (nits, to those of us with experience) are the size of a poppyseed on one hair and can only be removed with dynamite.

All joking aside, lice are a tremendous amount of work.  It's the pure time that needs to be committed that is killer.  I mean, lice are no more than a nuisance.  They do not spread disease.  They do not make your child sick.  They are an inconvenience, at best.  But what an inconvenience!

All of the bedding has to be washed and dried in high temperatures, along with hats, stuffed toys... mattresses and couches and pillows vacuumed. You need to treat your child, usually with a pesticide on their hair to kill the lice.  However, this does not remove the nits.  You need to spend a fair number of hours daily sectioning the hair and going through it to look for those tiny eggs - twice a day until the second treatment (7 days later) and then for another week if you are diligent.  And if you think a fine-toothed comb actually works, it's only useful for sectioning and maybe larger -ahem - items.  You need to pick those suckers off with your fingernails. Then boil all those things you used to pick through the child's hair.

My advice is to get familiar with lice (but not by catching them, obviously!) - that is, learn what a nit looks like so you can identify it.  Learn the signs of lice - not every person has an itchy head, so don't think that will tell you.  It is always easier to deal with lice if you catch them sooner rather than later. And if you are ashamed, or upset, just remember, you are not alone.